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Amidst the shades and cool refreshing streams, Z355

Introduction

Purcell’s autograph of Amidst the shades is held in the British Museum and has been dated to 1683. It was also published in 1687 in the fourth book of The Theatre of Music and reappeared in 1695 in The New Treasury of Musick. In the eighteenth century it was much admired by Burney who called it (in his General History III of 1789) an ‘admirable piece of recitative, in a truly grand style’. Damon, the sad subject of the song – a stock pastoral figure who appears widely, as in Marvell’s ‘Damon the Mower’ – is so miserable in his unreciprocated love for Aminda that the birds, sorry for his plight, decide to try to cheer him up with their singing.

Burney’s admiration for Purcell’s setting is completely justified, for this is a glorious song, full of a wealth of detail and pictorialization. In the first phrase, the addition of a seventh on ‘cool’ elegantly colours the harmony, and is followed by an exquisite melodic line for ‘their panting hearts’. Damon’s grief rises chromatically, and the angular harmony of ‘His looks disturb’d’ brings just the right touch of anguish. The birds ‘tremble’ with a fluttering downward scale, and their murmuring builds from near silence, rising as their confidence grows. Their optimistic song begins in the tonic major and in a regular metre as they ‘stretch their warbling throats’, inviting Damon ‘to rejoice’. But their efforts are in vain, and melancholy (and the minor key of the opening) returns; nothing can his ‘sad soul inspire’, and his heart is so much ‘by grief oppress’d’ (depicted by a sudden fall to the lowest end of the voice) that a desolate sigh ‘breaks from his breast’ and frightens the ‘harmless birds And damps the cheerful choir’. The melisma on ‘cheerful’ which closes the song could not be more poignant.

Recordings

'An auspicious launch to a project that will probably have no real competiton for years to come; I recommend it heartily' (Fanfare, USA)'An exceptional recording with consummate singing and playing which is worthy of pride of place in any vocal collection' (CDReview)» More

Details

Amidst the shades and cool refreshing streams, Where lovers ease their panting hearts in dreams, Poor Damon lay; his grief so sadly printed in his face, His looks disturb’d the pleasures of the place; In hollow notes he sung his wretched fate, His hopeless love and his Aminda’s hate. The trembling birds about him throng, Listen and murmur at his song Which hinder’d their sweet strains so long.

But straight with charming notes They stretch their warbling throats, And all, with one consent and voice, Invite the shepherd to rejoice. But what can his sad soul inspire, His heart so much by grief oppress’d? A sigh (alas!) breaks from his breast, Which frights the harmless birds And damps the cheerful choir.